Jet for Access, Excel and Txt on 64 bit systems

The Microsoft OLE DB Provider for Jet and the Jet ODBC driver are available in 32-bit versions only. You can't run them in 64 bit mode.

For example, you have a 32-bit application that uses the Microsoft OLE DB Provider for Jet. If you migrate the application to run in the 64-bit mode, the application cannot connect to the data source by using the Microsoft OLE DB Provider for Jet. This issue occurs because the application requires a 64-bit version of the Microsoft OLE DB Provider for Jet.

Note! Also a website is either an 32-bit or 64-bit application.

The Solution

If you run a program in a 64 bit environment and need to utilize jet to open an Access, Excel or text file there are several options to make this work.

• Run the program in WoW64 mode (emulates 32-bit on 64 bit systems). This will make the 32 bit drivers work.
• If the application is an web app hosted on IIS 7 you can choose to configure the web sites application pool to run in 32-bit mode.
• With Office 2010, there are new drivers, the 2010 Office System Driver, which will be provided in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. You can use these drivers to let your application connect to Access, Excel and text files in a 64 bit environment utilizing the new 64-bit drivers. The provider name is "Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0". You don't need to buy or install the Office suite, the components are available as a separate download. Find the download link here: /ace-oledb-12-0/info-and-download/

Summary

It is possible to open Excel, Access and text files on 64 bit systems. You can either configure your app to go 32-bit or you can change your application to use the new 64 bit drivers.